Computer games started as implementations of board games. But they have gone very far from each other. This comment nails it: * 2 points by b0rsuk 4 days ago

Computer games started as implementations of board games. But they have gone very far from each other. This comment nails it: * 2 points by b0rsuk 4 days ago | link | parent | on: Mining a 1993 game design for innovative game mech... There's an insightful comment over here: http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/whether-they-l.. http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/whether-they-l.... """I think one of the very interesting things about modern single-player game development is that it creates exceptionally expensive content designed to appeal to everyone and be played exactly once for 8-10 hours. As anybody who plays European board games will tell you, making a game (read: the body of rules, the mechanics and dynamics) is cheap - all you need is creativity and a lot of playtesting. AAA videogames are entirely different, though - millions are spent on voice acting, scripting, graphics, etc. This is why I'm excited for moderate-budget games like Bastion that can publish interesting and challenging gameplay with a budget lean enough that it doesn't have to sell to absolutely everybody.""" http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/whether-they-love-or-hate-story-in.html http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/02/whether-they-l... Board games don't just innovate in the rules department. Everywhere outside the computer "game" world, games ARE the rules. Rules is how we distinguish one game from another. If Heroes of Might and Magic III was a board game, people would call it an expansion to Heroes II. It has nearly identical rules. It has 3 extra towns and some extra units and spells ? The same is true for Munchkin Cthulhu. But no one is silly enough to call it a sequel or a separate game. As far as I'm concerned, 90% of the modern tacticool shooters are the same game, not similar games. They are played in the same way. Weapons and enemies are slightly different. Board games frequently have mechanics unheard of in the world of computer games